In these years, from the viewpoints of security and operation cost reduction, a thin client system in which desktop environments are aggregated on a server has attracted attention. Thin client system enhances security by transferring a screen of a virtual machine (VM) in remote connection from a thin client terminal to a virtual machine to eliminate the thin client terminal' need of having data or a business application. Thin client system also enables aggregation of desktop environments to be enhanced by operating a plurality of virtual machines by one hypervisor by server virtualization techniques.
Thin client system in common has a problem that an increased number of virtual machines to be managed will increase labors for management of virtual desktop environments. It is therefore necessary to manage virtual desktop environments with ease.
Disclosed as Background Art is, for example, a virtual desktop workplace environment management method of Patent Literature 1. This management method enables reduction in the number of workplace processes required for establishing/setting a thin client system.
Aiming at reducing the number of workplace processes required for establishing/setting a system, the management method recited in Patent Literature 1 has the following three characteristics.
First characteristic is that workplace environments are managed on an arbitrary group basis such as a personnel organization or a project in this management method.
Second characteristic is that workplace environments include two kinds of data, one related to virtual desktop environment setting having OS of a virtual machine as a template and the other related to workplace setting indicative of a working server or a business application (AP) for executing working and a peripheral apparatus to be connected to a thin client terminal.
Third characteristic is that this management method enables a workplace environment to be automatically set to a virtual machine according to a user group when a thin client terminal connects to a virtual desktop environment.
Background art will be described with reference to FIG. 15 and FIG. 16. FIG. 15 shows a VDS (Virtual Desktop Server) environment including a template 350 of OS of a virtual machine 310 which can be handled by a hypervisor 300, the virtual machine 310 created based on the template, a terminal connection network 330 for the connection to a thin client terminal through a physical NIC of the hypervisor 300, a data connection network 340 for the connection to a storage 320 of the hypervisor 300, and the storage 320.
FIG. 16 shows a structural diagram of a table of a data base according to the background art, which has a workplace DB 210 and an organization DB 204.
First characteristic is that the organization DB 204 in FIG. 16 represents a group of users, and a Group column in the workplace DB 210 has groups. This arrangement enables reference to a workplace environment according to a group of a user.
Second characteristic is that an OS column of the workplace DB 210 has virtual desktop environment setting, and columns of AP in use and peripheral apparatus have workplace setting. This arrangement enables a workplace environment to be provided for each group.
Third characteristic is that when a user requests connection to a virtual desktop environment, a group of the user is obtained from the organization DB 204 and a workplace environment of the group is obtained from the workplace DB 210 to instruct the hypervisor and the virtual machine to generate a workplace environment. This method enables automatic workplace environment setting.
When a user “User 1A” requests connection to a virtual desktop environment, for example, obtain a group “1” from the organization DB 204 and obtain virtual desktop environment setting of “1” as OS, and workplace setting of “AP1” as an AP for use and “USB” as a peripheral apparatus from the workplace DB 210 to instruct the hypervisor 300 and the virtual machine 310 to generate a workplace environment.
Then, when the User 1A works in the virtual desktop environment, the business application AP1 is installed on the virtual machine 310 of the OS1 to enable use of the USB.
Thus, using these characteristics, the background art attains an object of reducing the number of working processes required for establishing/setting a system.
As related art, optimally locating a virtual machine based on characteristics of server virtualization in general optimizes hypervisor resource consumption to have the following four effects.
First is “increased memory efficiency realized by unification of a virtual machine OS”. This represents that since a hypervisor is characterized in being capable of efficiently handling a real memory when a virtual machine has the same OS, unifying OSs of virtual machines attains an effect of increasing a memory utilization ratio.
Second is “simplification of wiring realized by unification of virtual networks”. This represents that since a hypervisor is characterized in enabling communication of a plurality of virtual networks (e.g. a network having segments divided by such a method as the tag VLAN (Virtual LAN) or the like) by one physical NIC (Network Interface Card), unifying networks to which a virtual machine on a hypervisor accesses results in having a virtual network to one-to-one correspond to a LAN cable to which the hypervisor connects, thereby preventing wires from being complicated.
Third is “band limitation by changing setting of a virtual machine NIC rate”. This represents that since a hypervisor is characterized in capable of changing an NIC rate of a virtual machine, changing NIC rates of a plurality of virtual machines on the hypervisor attains an effect of realizing band limitation of traffic of a physical NIC of the hypervisor.
Fourth is “data preserving region realized by other virtual disk than a virtual machine OS region”. This represents that since a hypervisor is characterized in being capable of enabling a virtual machine to recognize a virtual disk formed on a storage connected to SAN (Storage Area Network) or a local disk on a hypervisor, making the virtual machine recognize a virtual disk other than a virtual machine OS region attains an effect of having a data storage region.
Patent Literature 1: Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2010-205047.
Since the background art disclosed in Patent Literature 1 fails to handle the characteristics of virtualization of a server in a workplace environment, it is impossible to realize optimum locating of a virtual machine based on the characteristics of server virtualization, so that optimization of resource consumption of a hypervisor is impossible. More specifically, there are five problems, of which four are related to characteristics of server virtualization and one is related to side effects of the invention.
First, as to “increased memory efficiency realized by unification of a virtual machine OS”, since the background art itself has no mechanism that makes a virtual machine of a different OS be unlikely to coexist, virtual machines of different OSs will readily exist on the same hypervisor, so that the effect of increasing memory efficiency cannot be attained. Creating a virtual machine or relocation of virtual machines in the lump following a change of a workplace environment, for example, according to the background art will not attain the effect of increasing memory efficiency.
Secondly, as to “simplification of wiring realized by unification of virtual networks”, the background art fails to have a mechanism which makes a network to be connected to a different working server be unlikely to coexist. As a result, a plurality of virtual networks will readily exist on the same hypervisor, resulting in failing to obtain the effect of wiring simplification. Creating a virtual machine or relocation of virtual machines in the lump following a change of a workplace environment, for example, according to the background art will not attain the effect of simplification of wiring.
Thirdly, as to “band limitation by changing setting of a virtual machine NIC rate”, since the background art in itself fails to have a value of a NIC rate for the determination of band limitation, band limitation effects cannot be attained. Relocation of virtual machines in the lump following a change of a workplace environment, for example, according to the background art will result in failing to cope with a network band shortage in relocation for maintaining data connection following a workplace change.
Fourthly, as to “data preserving region realized by other virtual disk than a virtual machine OS region”, since the background art in itself fails to have a value indicative of a use situation of a data storage region, at the time of capacity shortage, temporary replacement by a file server is impossible. Relocation of virtual machines in the lump following a change of a workplace environment, for example, according to the background art will result in failing to cope with a data storage region shortage caused by relocation for maintaining a NW (Network) band following a workplace change.
Fifthly, as to “side effects of the invention”, only by setting minute set values to a workplace environment related to the third “band limitation by changing setting of a virtual machine NIC rate” and the fourth “data preserving region realized by other virtual disk than a virtual machine OS region”, more loads will be imposed on one who sets the workplace environment than those in the background art.